


Here

by impersonal_villain, sallysparrow017



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Audio drama, Cabeswater - Freeform, Gen, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Radio Play, So Many Sound Effects, Sound Effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26098678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impersonal_villain/pseuds/impersonal_villain, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sallysparrow017/pseuds/sallysparrow017
Summary: After the events of the Raven King, the gang explore a renewed Cabeswater. A full radio-play style audio piece.
Relationships: Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6
Collections: Pod_Together 2020





	Here

Length: 00:09:23  
Download (right click & save) or stream:  
[here!](https://sallysparrow017.parakaproductions.com/podfics/Here%20-%20A%20Raven%20Cycle%20Story.mp3)

EXT. CABESWATER

Out for a walk. Dry leaves crunch under Gansey’s footsteps. Distantly, voices snatched up by the wind, Adam, Ronan, and Henry shout back and forth. In the valley below, a stream trickles, occupied with a few croaking bullfrogs. Above, the birds call to one another. 

Gansey takes a slow and steady breath. He can relax here. 

GANSEY  
Richard Campell Gansey the third, coordinates 37 by negative 80. Cabeswater, or something like it. Summer exploration team, in association with Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, Blue Sargent, and Henry Chang. 24 days ago, Cabeswater… and Noah. Sacrificed themselves. And now? Uhh, see the appendix for photographs, I guess. I can’t describe it on here. Ronan’s been dreaming. Ronan’s been dreaming an awful lot. 

Distantly, from farther up the hill, Ronan shouts something down at Gansey. 

GANSEY  
I can’t hear you! Wait, I’ll come to you. 

Gansey takes a few steps. The dry leaves disguise wet mud. Gansey slips and goes gliding backwards down the hill, mmphing and oomphing as he hits rocks, half-rotten logs, etc. He somersaults over his shoulders and catches himself against a tree, hitting it with a hollow thud. The sounds of stream are closer now, but Gansey was atop a tall hill and still has plenty farther to fall. 

He grips a branch, pulls himself to stand, panting heavily. As his breathing quiets, a buzzing sound grows. Gansey holds his breath and the noise becomes clear— thousands of bees, a whole hive that has filled the tree and are now swarming towards all available exits— towards him. 

GANSEY  
No, no, no, no. No. Something else. Make it something else. 

The buzzing grows louder, closer. With a wild cry, Gansey breaks off the branch he is holding onto and hurtles himself down the hill, stumbling less gracefully, twisting his ankle. He lands in the water and splashes through it, pulling himself out by tree roots. His breath is rapid and out of control, his heartbeat audible. 

BLUE  
Gansey? Gansey, are you down here? I just saw your head come up over the hill and then immediately disappear again. Gansey? 

Gansey tries to control his trembling breath enough to speak, but he can’t. 

BLUE  
Gansey? Is that you? Are you ok? 

GANSEY  
Here! Blue… 

BLUE  
Gansey? Are you hurt? What’s wrong? Is it your arm? 

Crunching as Blue assesses the situation.

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
Can you climb back up? 

GANSEY  
(gasping)  
My… ankle… 

BLUE  
Hang on, I’m coming down! 

Blue sits on her butt, hugs her knees, and slides across crunchy leaves to the bottom. She jumps the stream, spraying water. 

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
Your arm, Gansey, let go, show it to me. What happened? 

She tugs at him. 

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
Let go. Gansey, let go of your arm, let me see it. 

GANSEY  
I’m… I need… 

BLUE  
(gently)  
Gansey. Let me see. 

He lets go of his arm. She undoes his jacket zipper, then slips it off his shoulders, revealing his t-shirted arm. Sharp inhale of breath.

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
Gansey… 

GANSEY  
Hornets. Bees or wasps, or. There were a million of them. In the tree.

BLUE  
What tree? Where’s the nest?

GANSEY  
I wasted Noah’s second chance. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. 

BLUE  
Shh shhh shhh. Don’t be sorry. It’s ok, you’re alright. Come here.

She wraps her arms around him, pulls him into her lap, rubs circles into his back. Gansey still breathes erratically.

GANSEY  
It’s over. It was all for nothing. 

BLUE  
It is not over. Just sit for a minute, Gansey. Just sit with me and look at all the green. Feel me breathing. Feel the wind moving the branches? Dream branches. Dream wind.  
Ronan’s just a little farther up the creek. He’s built a little dam to look for fish. And Adam is under that white dogwood tree, drawing sigils into the dirt with the heel of his boot. I’m here with you. 

GANSEY  
Henry. 

BLUE  
Henry is with Ronan. Weird pair, if you ask me. Ronan’s in the water, pants rolled up— like, he could have just worn short shorts, if he was gonna be like that, you know? Ronan’s in the water and Henry’s in the trees. Falling out of the trees, mostly.  
Everyone’s safe Gansey, even you. Listen to the water, gurgling against smooth dream-stones, everyone of them as black as a raven feather. Can you hear the woodpeckers? There’s a big one right over our heads, I swear it’s the size of a chicken. 

GANSEY  
Pileated. The largest woodpecker in North America. They can grow to 20 inches. 

BLUE  
And the toads by the water’s edge, although we might have scared them all away… No, I can still hear them. Listen. 

They listen. Bubbling stream. Woodpecker hammering away over their heads. Toad croaks and windswept branches and Ronan and Henry distantly teasing each other. 

Gansey breathes deeply, relaxing. 

GANSEY  
Oh. Oh, my arm. 

BLUE  
What is it, Gansey? 

GANSEY  
Just thorns.  
(breathes, allows himself to realize this)  
Only thorns, and… only thorns. Were they always only thorns?

BLUE  
Always. You’ve still got a handful of the branch. 

He winces trying to open his fist.

BLUE  
Easy. Ahh, that looks like it hurts. There’s a bunch still stuck in. I’ve got a little first aid kit on my belt, if you want Adam to— 

GANSEY  
No, you do it. Please. 

Plastic latch releases. Blue digs through band-aids and creams to pull out a pair of tweezers. 

BLUE  
It’s nice here. Ronan did a good job. 

GANSEY  
Empty and full. More of Ronan. Less of Noah. 

He bites back a groan, the first of many. Throughout their conversation, Blue digs under his skin with her tweezers to yank out the thorns. 

BLUE  
Less? Of Noah? What are you talking about? There’s tons of him.

She pulls out a thorn.

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
He’s… He’s everywhere, here. He’ll be in some places, sometimes.

Gansey winces. 

GANSEY  
Some places? 

BLUE  
You know like, I’ll be having the worst shift at Nino’s and then I can feel him. At his old table. Watching me. If I look of course he’s not there, but he is there. 

GANSEY  
Where else? 

BLUE  
My room a few times. Just as I’m slipping into dreams. 

GANSEY  
I haven’t dreamt at all. Since I… Well. Died. 

BLUE  
You do dream, you just don’t remember it. Noah’s probably there. I think a lot of him was still in Monmouth Manufacturing, you know, kind of confused. Looking for you and Ronan. But there’s so much of him here. I think he must have been visiting Ronan’s dreams when the new forest was being formed. Every tree kind of… Looks like him, don’t you think? Do you remember when he pranked you with that box of Cheez-Its and he couldn’t stop laughing to himself, for like, an hour? The water sounds like that to me. That laugh specifically. Noah laughing to himself. 

GANSEY  
He died near here. The first time. The last time too, I guess.  
(beat)  
Even here, I can’t feel him at all. 

BLUE  
Maybe you’re just not feeling him the same. He’s different now. Just like you are. He’s less afraid.

GANSEY  
Funny. I think I became more afraid after dying. 

BLUE  
He was more afraid after the first time. 

GANSEY  
Are you saying I should try dying again? 

BLUE  
Not sure. Kiss me and find out. 

They kiss.

BLUE  
(cont’d)  
Hmm. It didn’t kill you, so you’ve probably done enough dying. 

GANSEY  
Whatever you say.

BLUE  
You’re good, by the way, I got all the ones I could see. I’ll wash out your one hundred tiny puncture wounds and bandage up your hand. Come on, let’s go. 

GANSEY  
Wait, my phone fell out of my pocket. 

Crunching/crumpling noise as he picks up it up, laughs to himself. 

GANSEY  
It’s still recording. I was tracking coordinates and… wow I must have caught that whole thing. 

BLUE  
Better delete it before Ronan gets his hands on it. He’ll upload it to his computer and make a remix of you falling into the stream. 

GANSEY  
Ha. Yeah. I actually think I’ll keep it. Maybe I’ll listen back to it or something. Or just know that I’m carrying your words around in my pocket. 

BLUE  
Richard Campbell Gansey the Third, you are so— 

Gansey ends the recording.

**Author's Note:**

> Sallysparrow017:Hope you enjoyed listening to this! I had such a blast making this- I've never had a project before that necessitated going out on a hike and recording... Just all kinds of shenanigans. The sounds you hear in this podfic are legitimately the sounds of me rolling down a hill (slowly, and for a much shorter time than it felt like while doing it 😂), stomping on dead trees to get branches to break, and running straight through a stream several times (driving home with my boots soaked through was not ideal, but I felt So Accomplished).
> 
> Thanks for listening!  
> Come find me on [tumblr](https://www.laheylupin.tumblr.com)!


End file.
